This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, college readiness, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues with additional focus at the national level.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Should UT remove statue honoring Confederate leader?

My answer to this question—along with many others—is "yes."

-Angela

By Benjamin Wermund |
June 22, 2015
| Updated: June 22, 2015 5:18pm

Photo By Eric Gay/STF

﻿ University of Texas administrators are considering a request
to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis that symbolizes the Confederacy
since many find it offensive﻿.

A
statue at the state's flagship university honoring Confederate leader
Jefferson Davis has become a divisive reminder of the University of
Texas at Austin's Old South roots -- ties that a growing number of
students, alumni and lawmakers want to see the university sever.A petition calling for the statue's removal
drew more than 1,500 signatures in 24 hours. Student leaders, who
started the petition, said they were optimistic after meeting on Monday
with UT President Gregory Fenves, who took office earlier this month.
"Statues serve to glorify and memorialize the values of what the
subject stood for," the petition, started by members of UT's student
government, says. "Given Jefferson Davis' vehement support for the
institution of slavery and white supremacy, we believe this statue is
not in line with the university's core values — learning, discovery,
freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility."
The tension that has arisen around the statue echoes a broader
national struggle over public institutions displaying Confederate
relics. In South Carolina, politicians, including the state's governor, have called for removal of the Confederate flag,
which remains at full staff over the state house, days after a white
gunman killed nine people in a historically black church in Charleston.
As UT has worked to diversify in recent years,
some on campus see relics like the Davis statue and an inscribed ode to
the men and women of the Confederacy as unwelcome reminders of the
school's past. The ode is carved into a wall near UT's Littlefield
Fountain, one of the university's most prominent landmarks -- named
after George Littlefield, a major UT donor and a former Confederate
major.
"To a first-generation Latina, these symbols were nothing less than
intimidating," Amanda Esparza, a UT student, wrote on the petition.
"Remove the statue. Place it in a museum where our society can learn
from it and the man it depicts. Do not leave it on a college campus
aiming to be as diverse and cultural as possible. Do not leave this
statue on the grounds of my home."
Among those to sign the petition was U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat.
"As a world class university, UT should part with the divisive
message represented by the Confederate statutes featured prominently on
campus," Castro wrote. "It's time to move them to a museum and consider
replacing them with a general Civil War memorial plaque to all Americans
who died."
Some state lawmakers -- including Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston
Democrat, and Rep. Joe Deshotel, a Beaumont Democrat -- also signed the
petition.
The petition follows a vote by the student government urging the
administration to remove the statue, which was vandalized earlier this
year.
Fenves "takes this issue very seriously and has been reviewing it
since he took office earlier this month," Gary Susswein, a university
spokesman, said in an email.
On his first day in office earlier this month, Fenves said he doesn't
believe the statue must be removed simply because it is divisive.
"There are many things that divide people, but the role of the university is to educate people on our history," Fenves said.
UT student body president Xavier Rotnofsky was optimistic after Monday's meeting with Fenves.
"President Fenves is really attuned to our concerns and I'm confident something good is going to come of it," Rotnofsky said.
UT has wrestled with such issues in the past. In 2010, Fenves's predecessor Bill Powers pushed to rename Simkins Hall,
a dormitory which opened in 1955 and was named for William Stewart
Simkins, a law professor from 1899 to 1929 and a former leader of the Ku
Klux Klan. Simkins is now known as Creekside.